Brazil electoral court orders Meta to treat Lula and Bolsonaro equally, including Meta AI

Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court ruled Oct. 15 that Meta cannot reduce the distribution of political content, restrict searches or remove posts in a way that creates an imbalance between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and challenger Flávio Bolsonaro before their Oct. 25 runoff, and must ensure its Meta AI tool applies identical criteria to both campaigns, on pain of a 500,000-reais daily fine, the AP reported. Lula’s campaign had alleged that Meta cut the reach of its posts and that Meta AI on WhatsApp refused to generate campaign images for Lula while producing them for Bolsonaro; the ruling also requires Meta to explain the criteria the tool uses, per Valor International. Meta told the court on Oct. 11 that it rejects accusations of bias and has faced technical glitches affecting accounts beyond Brazil, the AP reported.